(published 2003)
It amazes how time blasts along. This book, at one time, a Great New Thing, a Booker Prize winner, now celebrates its twenty-third birthday.
The Kite Runner is a flawed but exceptional work that explores racism, class, hypocrisy and good old fashioned redemption. It begins with two boys in Afghanistan before the Taliban blew in. The privileged Amir and his best friend/servant Hassan. Amir is Pushtan, Hassan is Hazara. For anyone who thinks classism and racism is property of the west, you need to get out more. In a way, Hassan is Amir’s slave. This is perfectly natural to both boys.
Kite flying competitions are extremely keen in Afghanistan and it was during the preparation of such that Hassan bravely took a horrible assault that was meant for Amir, who watched, like a coward, hiding in the bushes.
Hassan never said a word, which caused Amir (who, for an MC, was a miserable little fuckhead in serious need of redemption), Amir to lie and deliberately remove Hassan from his life because of the guilt he felt.
One of the truly remarkable wins for this book is how Hosseini managed to hold the reader despite Amir’s vast array of shortcomings. It works because Hosseini told it from Amir’s point of view, and the character was not easy on himself–any other way would have led to this thing being tossed aside after twenty pages.
I find it fair to say that Afghanistan has always been a mess; it has been in turmoil for ages and it knows no form of change that isn’t drastic and hard on people unable to defend themselves. The 1980s brought the Russians the 90s saw the Taliban. It was actually the USSR era that forced Amir and his father Baba to flee Afghanistan for the United States. Hassan and his father, being poor, had to stay.
Things were different for the guys in America–now working class immigrants, they joined a flea market society (literally) that was one of the few ways they could mix with their own country-folk. Amir, removed from being the rich kid, grew as a person and after Baba’s death, he found out about Hassan having a son in Afghanistan, and that Hassan had been murdered by the Taliban. In 2003 he went home to find the boy and to perhaps scrub himself clean of past shame.
It is well done, and well above the level one may associate with a first novel, but its main flaw, I think, involves virtually no presence of women in any meaningful way; much could have been done with Hassan’s mother and Amir’s wife. I cannot say why, but knowing what I do about their culture (which is actually more than that known to the average American), that reflects a bit of the presence of the injustice the author stands against.
Moreover, the timing of its release, not long after 9-11 quite possibly excused the many smaller, yet amateurish missteps (these are mainly fortunate coincidences that saved a great deal of work), which readers new to the book will probably see, upon the clearing of all the smoke present in that era. No, time has not been the Kite Runner’s friend but at the same time the central theme of redemption, as old as bedrock, is winningly present.
Even a non-expert reader like me, noticed these things, which became harder to miss upon recent review, but at the same time I can forgive them because they did not detract from the story. Yet I must wonder if the receipt of the Booker Prize was influenced more by political climate than by the quality of the writing. At one time this could have been a great book, but, for me, good is all I can say for it. The standard for great must remain held high. But, hey, maybe that will change in another twenty years.
Regardless, the book gives the reader an understanding of this constantly torn land. And the transformation of Amir is completely believable. Therefore the climax of the novel is special. It bursts with the same contagious joy Dickens found for Scrooge.
literally stories 
I would like to point out that it was more than inferred that Hassan and Amir might have been half brothers. But I found that needless and chose to overlook it. It meant nothing to the story, but might have to the author. Just want you to know I am aware of it. I kept thinking I should add that, but I just couldn’t. That probably says more about me than I’d like. Oh lah-dee-dah!
Leila
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Leila, Thanks for this. I read it back in the day. I think I heard bits of it read on the BBC radio too. But since then, I’d more than half forgotten it. Definitely worth a re-read. Thank you – mick
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Hi Mick
Thank you for dropping by. And although parts of my review are lukewarm it is still worth the read. It shines light on the way things at least were in that nation, which appears to be a place run by anyone except Afghans!
Thanks again!
Leila
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I agree with your thoughts about this and the political climate at the time it was published. I don’t think it would have won the Booker if it had been set in, for example, Pakistan, which is feasible. I admit to finding it a little ‘meh’. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on it. dd
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Hi Diane
I think it is a problem when “best of” things are decided way too soon. I cannot suggest a feasible way to do it, but it would be nice if there was a five, even ten year wait before prizes for a certain year are awarded. That should go for films as well. Too many things are voted on in the heat of the moment thus such awards are (and should be) held in suspicion. For instance, the almost shocking omission of women from the story should have raised huge concerns. I understand the characters were male and did guy things–but he conveniently killed off one mother and sent the other to Nod, and the thoughtful wife of Amir had a chance to be something but she only rated a couple of meaningful pages. Although obviously intelligent and well educated, a great deal of what is wrong with that society is plain to see in Dr. Hosseini. And I don;t believe that is being too harsh or even slightly harsh.
Still, I’m glad it is this way. A lot can be discussed and thought about!
Thank you as always!
Leila
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Hi Leila,
I suppose the likes of ‘The Prince And The Pauper’ and ‘The Man In The Iron Mask’ could be looked at as sorts of catalysts for this. I think there are a few plots that look at mirrored lives and parallels??? If you have an understanding of certain cultures and beliefs, this can be a clever match up.
But I have no knowledge to be able to compare or spot. Those were simply the first thoughts that came to me.
What I did find interesting and tragic is your comment on your suspicion that the Booker Prize was awarded mainly due to the political climate at that time. HAH!! Maybe bribes have been replaced by politics and even more worrying political correctness.
…There is something more honest about bribes.
Interesting and entertaining as always.
Hugh
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Hello Hugh
And many thanks as always. Ah, bribes–greasing the palm. I used to be so naive and think “those were the days”–until Olympic officials and FIFA types began going to jail.
Although I do not think any cash was involved I do believe that Afghanistan was (an remains) an awfully easy target to say something important about. But there is (sadly) more courage in publishing cartoons of the Prophet, which is a ridiculously dangerous thing to do. In the end, and it bears repeating, this is a case of a good, well written book being championed as something it was not quite up to being.
Happy Sunday!
Leila
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A very interesting review of the book itself and the political landscape. A land that’s constantly torn … and constantly sad.
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Hi David
The place, frankly, is a mess. Did it even take two days before the Taliban re-took the country? Like the chaotic African nations Afghanistan must must take control of itself and stop allowing monsters to bully the land and steal the resources. No more excuses. No more tradition. What tradition? Stoning women to death for alleged adultery? Look at us, we have an absolute jackass in the White House but the government safeguards prevent him from turning us into the Congo. No need for bloodshed, damn it. People must make an effort and get moving. Until then criminals will have complete control. That goes for the U.S. too. Time we all put down the goddam phone and make an effort. Too easy to blame it all on the Taliban and the Big Orange. I’m sick to death of passive populations making it an embarrassment to be human!!!
Take care and all my thanks!
Leila
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Leila
It is very, very much the fashion these days to mock critical and aesthetic standards for art and to throw stones at the very notion of “great art” being something important or even real. This fashionable and trendy (and “democratic”) stance can be seen almost everywhere in American academia, for example. All of the above has been made worse by the tentacles of the dumbed-down and dumbing-down mass media which have reached so far everywhere across the globe that only very remote peoples in the Amazon or certain island nations back in the mountains have not been infected by it. There was a time in the USA when the average auditor could very easily understand the most important parts of both Shakespeare and the King James Bible. The problem is THE SYSTEM, not necessarily the people themselves (although the philosophical question of personal responsibility then enters into it).
But the fact remains that really-really-really good writing survives its own time, and mediocre or just “okay” writing does NOT survive its own time. This is literally a scientific fact, if sociology and anthropology are sciences, which they are. The audience for these truths is small compared to the numbers of the vast herds and hordes (percentage-wise it is small), but there remains and will remain for a very long time a core group of readers across the globe who are interested in what will remain after all of us who are here right now are gone. This is where art meets the spiritual in the modern world, even for people who are entirely secular in their worldview.
Your book reviews always keep these eternal truths in the background, when you are not discussing them in the foreground. That makes you both a very rare and a very valuable literary critic and book reviewer!
Your productivity is also amazing. The amount of fresh, new, original work you are able to generate on a consistent basis in a variety of writing genres sets you apart from the herd, very much so: which is both a blessing and a curse.
Dale
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Hi Dale
Thank you! I used to be someone who found any excuse not to write. I will say that I put more into justifying inactivity than anyone. I also had a weird notion (that I no longer believe) that we have so many words in us.
Well, if that is true I’ll need to live longer than Mel Brooks to use just the ones I saved.
I encourage all to view the Drifter at Saragun Springs!
Leila
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